And The Coaching Begins…

So our first day in Nymirama was very exciting to say the least. We traveled about 2 hours on a bus to get there. The bus was extremely crowded. I couldn’t even see my feet in front of me. I was able to nap on the bus though so that was good.

When we arrived at the courts, everyone swarmed me and was asking for my ribbons that were tied to my back pack. They were ribbons acquired from my field hockey team. I didn’t want to get rid of those for sentimental reasons, but I was going to give out the glow in the dark bracelets I had on one of my bags but the kids snatched them right off my bag before I had a chance to give them away. It felt like we had an entourage because they followed us everywhere. It was actually neat.

The kids were adorable. They kept asking me: “Coach, you give me, you give me”. They were asking me to give them my ribbons off my bag. The little things mean so much to them. 🙂

I know one thing, with all the hills they have out here, my calf muscles will definitely get a good workout. 🙂

So day one on the courts was fun. I worked with the older kids and Matt worked with the younger kids. At the end of the day, two of the older boys wanted to play 2 on 2 with me and Matt to two points. I had a nice post move but then I missed my next two post plays. Yup, the kids won. Lol Did we let them win? Only Matt and I will ever know. 🙂

Started out the week at Rukara Courts. It started raining ten minutes into the practice so that got cancelled. I am hanging out in my room now with no power. No power seemed to be the theme of the week. I did testing on Tuesday at the court in Kayonza. It was a little chaotic since I didn’t know who was with Shooting Touch and who was not but I persevered through it and had fun while doing it. A lot of the older kids, 20 years old and up, kept trying to do the testing. I now have a better understanding of who should be there and who should not, so that will help me tremendously down the road. I am still in the learning stages here.

I spoke at two schools this week, New Life and St. Theresa’s. I am hoping to get a girls basketball team in Kayonza. They have never had a girls’ team in Kayonza so that’s one of my goals to work on. I also went to a girl’s orphanage this week. We played a name game while we were there and Lisaane was so kind as to record me trying to dance and learn their names.

Lisanne got me eating chibati and banana. I am told it was a creation made by Remy. Chibati is similar to a tortilla wrap. It is actually pretty good.

Friday, the rain is down-pouring so badly that I cannot even hear the movie that I have playing so I don’t know if Gahini will still be on the agenda or not. I am waiting to see if the rain lightens up at all so that we can get out on the court. I want to get back to work!